Eagle

The factory lugnuts have a stainless steel cover. Use of an impact gun deforms the covers, and they fall off. That's one major reason why I never let a shop touch my lugnuts -- if I need tire work, I'll take off the wheel(s) at home, using a manual spanner, and take it/them to the shop in the back of another vehicle. To reinstall, I snug up with the spanner and then finish with a torque wrench. I've bought perfect replacements for the factory lug nuts from Pep Boys. IIRC, they cost about $3 each, so $15 for a set of five.

You can't see how it's aligned from photos. A difference of one degree or two degrees is not going to show up in a photo, nor is a difference of an eighth of an inch plus or minus on toe-in -- but those are the numbers you neeed to know what's going on. The ONLY way to figure out what's wrong with your alignment is to put it on an alignment rack and get accurate readings for caster, camber, and toe-in.

What did you do about the air bag?

Find your tire size and gear ratio here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pHFuhGgj6dQDfzyfFJH5z7NCDLW2KX3ABQgAJr3lBvM/pub?hl=en&hl=en&output=html

I don't see any issue from your photos. What is your camber?

You need to worry a lot. There's a reason why the factory put a Dana 44 under the metric ton models. Don't exceed the 1400 pounds established by the factory.

I don't know whose database you're looking at. I have the factory owner's manual for the '89 MJ open in front of me. The tire sizes it lists are: P195/75R15 P205/75R15 P215/75R15 P225/75R15 P215/65R15

As you go through the FSM to diagnose specific problems, if the problem can be diagnosed by use of a multimeter at the diagnostic port(s) it will be explained there. There is no single summary of all the tests on one page or in one chapter. If you are trying to diagnose a problem with the FSM and there's no mention of using the diagnostic port -- there's a reason.

The factory never shipped XJs or MJs with 235/75-15s. The largest factory tire was 225/75-15. 235s fit, and almost always without any rubbing on either bodywork or lower control arms. 30x9.50s and 31x10.50s when mounted on factory Jeep rims will fit in the wheel openings and won't hit the flares or sheet metal when the suspension compresses, but they will rub on the lower control arms when the steering is cranked to full lock. That can be "fixed" by shimming the steering stops on the knuckles, but you lose turning radius. Or, you can replace the lower control arms with those for a WJ Grand Cherokee. They have a bend to provide tire clearance. Especially for a 2WD, the easiest, most straightforward approach is to regard 235/75-15 as the largest tire size you can run with no issues.

Correct, the operable vent/wing windows were an option. Are you asking about swapping an 89 or 90 AX-15 with the internal slave, or are you asking about using a 94+ tranny designed for the external slave with the internal slave bell housing? Just a gauge cluster. No wiring involved. You also have to replace the temperature sender (left rear corner of the head) and the oil pressure sender.

As Hornbrod has posted, ALL Comanches (and Cherokees) had catalytic converters when they shipped from the factory.

Yes, I'm sure. I posted the link to the spreadsheet that shows road speeds for various tire sizes and gear ratios. Look it up. Your factory speedometer is only accurate for the tire size that came on the truck. If you increase the tire size significantly without changing the speedometer drive gear, your road speed will be significantly faster than what the speedoemeter says, because the speedometer doesn't know you changed the tires. Assuming your factory tire size was 215/75-15, the jump to a 31x10.50-15 is an increase of approximately 10 percent. That alone would suggest your true speed was 66 MPH. The spreadsheet I compiled is based on actual tire manufacturers' revolutions-per-mile data, which is the most accurate way to correlate road speed to engine RPM. With 215/75-15 tires, 60 MPH in 5th gear with 4.10 gears is 2319 RPM. If I then go to the data block for 31x10.50s, that same RPM falls between 65 and 70 MPH. Interpolating, it looks to me like it would be about 67 MPH. If the speedo is showing 70, your road speed is about 77 to 78 MPH.

Fog lights are supposed to be on with the low beams and off with the high beams. Some states are strict about that, others aren't. Since you are in California, I would expect that they are. The simple way to keep your fog lights legal would be to tap a feed to the input side of your dash switch from the headlight low beam circuit.

I have a 2000 XJ with the 3550, and I have an AX-15 in one of the '88 MJs. There is no comparison. First, the 3550 has a deeper first gear, so if you go off-road that helps your crawl ratio. The 3550 is MUCH smoother shifting, and it's quieter when driving. If you can get it for $500 -- go for it.

Valve seals (which aren't really seals, but deflectors) are very easy to install and don't require removing the head.

Agreed.

If your speedometer read 60, you were going closer to 70.

Instrument cluster ground.

On 35s, a true 65 MPH will only be turning 1995 RPM in 5th gear. That's far, FAR below both the torque and horsepower peaks of the engine. Even in 4th gear it's only 2661 RPM -- still way below where the engine makes usable power. 4.88s will bring that up to 2375 RPM in 5th and 3167 in 4th. Better, but not great. In fact, it'll be just about the same as what you have now with the 32s.

Link to the tire/gear/speed spreadsheet. This is based on actual tire manufacturers' revolutions-per-mile data, so it's more accurate than most of the other calculators you can find on-line. https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AvuGamS7bzt-dHJxYy1QajhuVUFUbUVDUWdiZnVFbmc&output=html

Yes, you will.

Correction: This is THE problem. The 2.5L was never a rocket engine to begin with. Let's face it, it's a conventionally-aspirated 4-cylinder engine trying to push a 3,000+ pound vehicle shaped like a brick. And the '86 version had less power than the Chryco MPFI version. Then you lift it 6 inches and throw 32" tires under it without changing the gear ratio -- what did you expect? Since you have a 5-speed, it's probably safe to assume you have 4.10 gears. With stock tires (for an '86 we'll assume that means 215/75-15), 65 MPH would have had the engine turning at 2512 RPM in 5th gear, or 3349 in 4th. Now we switch to 32s. 2512 RPM is now actually about 74 MPH, so the frictional and aerodynamic drag factors are increased exponentially. And running at 2500 RPM (or even 3350 RPM when you drop to 4th) you are WAAAAY below the torque and horsepower peak of the engine. Your engine was rated (when new) for just 117 HP at 5,000 RPM, and 135 ft-lbs of torque at 3,500 RPM. And for the 2.5L, the torque peak really is a peak -- the 2.5L doesn't have a nice, long, flat torque curve like the 4.0L, it really peaks at 3,500 RPM and falls off sharply above and below that. You unfortunately have unreasonable expectations of what your engine can do.

Since Jim has started a new thread about this engine, I'll close this one to alleviate confusion.

I don't have my FSM handy to look it up, but I don't think that's where #1 should be located. IIRC, the #1 spark plug wire should be at approximately 1:00 or 1:30 when looking at the distributor from the passenger side of the engine.

91 flex plate thought of that too, also thought about orientation but read somewhere if it's on its rite because it will only bolt up 1 way? The flex plate only bolts on one way, but that only addresses orientation/indexing. There's still the fact that a Renix flex plate won't work with an HO CPS and ignition, and an HO flex plate won't work with a Renix CPS and ignition.